I have been thinking about a basic framework on how to transition society to a new paradigm. The first obvious method, would be to get the overall population backing a certain ideal, and then create a revolution, by overthrowing the people in power. This is probably one of the most improbable possibilities, because people for the most part are not susceptible to new ideas that conflict with their values and identification. This first evidence I see of this is just participating in political debate forums. People blindly stick to their ideals, to the point that no matter how much evidence you throw their way, they refuse to acknowledge a conflicting idea. When they are utterly defeated through debating, they will just devalue the evidence presented which is a central component to the conflicting stance. Part of it has to do with dominance and competitiveness. Individuals want to become superior than their counterparts to feel better about themselves. But there is more to it. All people identify with a group of people in their community. There are people that tend to identify with the minority because they want to behave in an acceptable way. A common explanation for this, is that people who were the first born in their family when they find acceptable characteristics of their parents, will try and establish a connection with those values. They follow the rules and regulation of the parents, which makes them susceptible to identifying with the majority. This means, that no matter what the evidence of certain ideas that conflict with their identification or values, these ideas will be rejected. And, part of the component to this idea has to do with majority, therefore the majority of the populace would tend to not accept these new ideals. Not to mention, the perceived fear of drastic change. This, and other concepts of human psychology and sociology that I have not learned about, are the reason why I do not think the majority of the populace can be convinced of a new idea or ideal. Therefore, another method should be implemented in transitioning society to a Resource Based Economy.

The transition must coincide with the values of the populace. One common drive of the human race, is the drive to survive. This is apparent in various works of art, where it is theorized that humanity would bond together to defeat the obstacle at hand. And, in our current society, things are only changed when the lives of the majority are affected. Therefore, I think the best method would be to implement this idea after the collapse of society’s systems.

The obvious target that comes to my mind, is the global economic system. The distribution and consumption of resources is dependent upon a monetary system. If this is removed, people would not know what to do with regards to the distribution of resources. One idea that I will touch based on, is that the men in power now want to create a worldwide government once the economic system collapses (which maybe happening right now. I will touch base on this in a second.) But this would be a prime time to put into place The Resource Based Economy.

The easiest way to collapse the economic system is by ruining the banking sector:

Everyone would request a complete withdrawal of their money. Fractional reserve banking is dependent upon the assumption that not all of their reserves is required for withdrawals. This is how they accrue their wealth. Because of the reasons outlined above, this is near to impossible from happening.

The confidence of Treasury Bonds are lost coupled with hyper-inflation. This is the method that I think is being used today. The increase of governmental deficit spending forces banks to increase interest rates to remove money from the overall money supply. This is to increase the value of the dollar. The deficit spending also essentially increases demand because there is more money available. Therefore, prices go up while jobs are not created because for the most part, supply of goods and services are adequate as well as the advent of automation systems and outsourcing. Wages also do not increase in concordance to inflation. Combined with increased interest rates on loans, people cannot afford necessities. They then turn to the government, which would be forced to increase deficit spending. This induces a feedback process. Additionally, the increase in interest rates decreases the rate at which loans are taken out. This means there is less small businesses and the like being established. Less jobs are being created. Furthermore, with people losing money in addition to the value of the dollar being decreased, confidence of the currency dwindles. Once the confidence of the established currency is lost, the economy collapses (because money’s value is fundamentally dependent upon the confidence in it.) With no system present to distribute scarce resources, not only will there be upheaval and anger over lost wealth, everyone will be fearing for themselves and freedoms because those are the values of dominant economical cultures. With no system to distribute scarce resources, another economy must be put into place. The people in power now I believe want to implement a world-wide government, but this would be a prime time to implement and put into action The Resource Based Economy.

By halting the cycle of money. Money is borrowed from The Fed by the government, and then is spent on various governmental programs. Money is then taken out of the system by banks by enforcing interest, whereby they use that money to create more money by contributing that money to financial instruments. One way to halt the system, would be to break the physical process of The Fed issuing money to the government. There could be multiple ways of doing this, by disrupting their electronic systems by cyber attacks or physical destruction etc., or by altering the ability of the government to be able to withdraw loans from The Fed. This would be by eliminating the confidence in Treasury Bonds. I need to research more on how this could be accomplished.

I must admit, I am for forcing this if need be. I believe there are people that just do not grasp or educate themselves about the essence of the world around them. Therefore, they do not adequately have the information to make an accurate decision. Linked together with the reasons I put forth, the only way I see a new economy put into place is if the current one is of no use. This would unite all of humanity because an economy is necessary for survival to distribute resources to all the people on the planet. I would love it if we could transition from people just turning their minds towards a new idea, and have the new economy be put in place peacefully and without conflict, and with the approval with the vast majority of the people. I think in the real world however, this is not possible. Jaque Fresco is trying to show the world that his idea is practical and could work by physically building a small establishment with the various designs he has in place. I think this is essentially going to add to the evidence that this idea could work, but I do not think it will convince the majority of the people.

I wish there was another way, but as of right now, I do not think there is. Life tends to be harsh and not what you hoped for at times.

I hope I am wrong. But I do believe that this system would bring a better satisfaction of life to everyone, while decreasing a substantial amount of suffering.

I am not going to hold it against you, the reader, if you disagree with what I have written. But I hope you think it through. I hope you keep reading.

Beyond Utopia is an essay written by the founder of The Venus Project. The Venus Project is an organization devoted to a direction of sociological reform. It is a vision that for me not only makes a lot of sense, but that I support. I have written about some of its concepts on this forum, more of which I will discuss soon. This I believe is a revolutionary idea. I remember I set a goal to create an ideal for the progression of humanity. I do not think I have to do it anymore, because this new system not only sounds appealing, but it is very possible. I can tell he put a lot of years research into this idea, because a lot of his statements coincide with what science is learning through my own personal research. For example, I have raved about the Humanist approach and the advancement of the study of human development. Jacque Fresco talks about how if a new paradigm would be put into place, a new moral and incentive system would be in place. This of course, through my readings, would change the development quite literally of the physical brain. Hereby, coinciding with the change in development of thoughts and perceptions. In essence, there would be new people. People that would be foreign to greed, corruption, scarcity, and exploitation. And, from the author Erich Fromm, humanity would be free to find their essence of man. Being able to focus on this journey, life would seem to be more fulfilled. Instead of worshiping man-made products, humanity would cultivate their own creativity and individuality.

The economical ideology of a given society has a great impact on how humans develop. As Jacque Fresco has written about, a monetary system is in place to divide available resources. People that do not have the buying power to posses resources that they need, not only feel marginalized by the overall society, but are in a constant state of a flight-or-fight response. More fear is induced to the individual because we are talking about survival. The fight-or-flight pathways in the brain actually become more sensitized. This means that literally the distance of the synapses of the neurons in these pathways decrease. Meaning, it takes less stimuli to initiate a response. This leads to increased anxiety, and changed thinking that is geared towards fearing the worst outcome. Anxiety disorders might emerge, ranging from social anxiety to general anxiety disorders. Plus, anxiety is a central component to depression. Anxiety can cause depression, and depression can cause anxiety, probably due to the lack of serotonin in the brain. This means, that if a different economy was in place, there would be a different development of the human brain. If scarcity would be eliminated, less people would resort to crime, because it would not be necessary to survive. There would still be crime, simply because there are known cases where criminals have a genetic make-up that makes them more prone to violent acts. (This is known by looking at the lives of severely violent criminals. There are cases where prisoners were born in families that did not have known previous history of violent crimes, and grew up in a nurturing, caring, and affluent homes. Yet, they had a history of violent acts. The hypothesis is that their genetics brought about temperamental biases that created a certain response to their environment that resulted in violent behavior.)

So, with a different moral and value system that can be developed, the vision can succeed. There is an old view, one that I have touched upon, that says it is human nature to be selfish, greedy, and corrupt. If there was an economical system that promoted the well being of humanity and the planet as a whole, the acts of selfishness, greed, and corruption would not be the norm. This is backed by science.

The Resource Based Economy takes the middle man out of the equation. Money, or currency, is removed. And no, the economy is not centralized around bartering. Humanity has the know how to transport the world’s resources across the globe. The access to resources is what dictates action. Money is just a system to disperse those resources. If we make the assumption that all the world’s resources belong to every human being on this planet, then the transportation of these various resources could meet the demands of the world. Technology can and automation can easily make this feasible. To maximize the usage of these resources, and with the elimination of the monetary system, products would be designed to maximize lifetime, eliminating planned obsolescence. And I have touched based on this concept, and how this economy would be implemented. Satellites with GPS tracking systems could easily monitor the world’s resources in real time. They could record the consumption of these resources, and relay it to automated systems on the ground. To ensure the availability of these resources in the future, restrictions on resources could be made in real time to everyone around the planet. With scarcity removed through technology, humanity could deal with the world’s resources directly. As Jacque Fresco has stated in his essay, it is resources that are the determining factor on getting things done. When there are recessions, there are still phones, clothes, books, TV’s, you name it, that are still in the shopping windows. People do not have enough money to buy those resources, even though they are still present.

Without scarcity, there wouldn’t be wars. Why have wars? Resources are provided to everyone. With an automated global transportation system, renewable energy (to maximize resource consumption, after all, this energy source is renewable) and anything else that humanity could put their minds to, a more fulfilled life would be experienced. With the advent of robotics and automated systems ranging from manufacturing to hydroponic farming, an increased standard of living with minimization of physical labor would be experienced.

One criticism I have with this paper, however Jacque has done so much with authoring and leading this initiative, is it does not provide a plan on how to transition to this system from the old monetary based systems. This maybe my one of my next intellectual endeavors. Hopefully I do it well.

In all, I enjoyed the read. It was written very well too. This is a life that makes a whole lot of more sense to me, as it is more humane. With humanity caring and being closer to mother nature, and individuals finding their essence of man because they are able to not participate in physical labor, happiness, peace, and tranquility would be accomplished. I really hope humanity opens up their minds to this idea. It is in my experience, that people are not willing to change their ideals, no matter the mounds of evidence you put forth to them. And this, I fear, means that a revolution of this magnitude must be forced. But I will consider other options, of course.

Enlightening read! I hope my readers take time to read up on The Venus Project and actually read this essay! And I hope it is received well, for if there is enough backing a better life could be lived by everyone.